Mount Magazine | |
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![]() Looking west from Mount Magazine's Cameron Bluff (October 2013) | |
Highest point | |
Elevation | 2,753 ft (839 m) NAVD 88 [1] |
Prominence | 2,143 ft (653 m) [2] |
Listing | |
Coordinates | 35°10′01″N93°38′41″W / 35.167016203°N 93.644725919°W [1] |
Geography | |
Location | Logan County, Arkansas, U.S. |
Parent range | Ouachita Mountains, U.S. Interior Highlands |
Topo map | USGS Blue Mountain |
Climbing | |
Easiest route | Paved road |
Mount Magazine, officially named Magazine Mountain, is the highest point of the U.S. Interior Highlands and the U.S. state of Arkansas, and is the site of Mount Magazine State Park. [3] It is a flat-topped mountain or mesa capped by hard rock and rimmed by precipitous cliffs. There are two summits atop the mountain: Signal Hill, which reaches 2,753 feet (839 m), and Mossback Ridge, which reaches 2,700 ft (823.0 m).
Mount Magazine is often called "the highest point between the Alleghenies and the Rockies" (there are mountains located in the Trans-Pecos region of far-west Texas which exceed Mount Magazine in elevation and prominence, although the Trans-Pecos region lies so far south of the Rockies, that region arguably does not lie "between" the Allegheny Mountains and the Rocky Mountains).
According to English botanist Thomas Nuttall, writing in 1819, French hunters named the mountain "Magazine" or "Barn" (French magasin ) because of its "peculiar form". [4] [5] However, today some scholars believe Nuttall may have been writing about nearby Mount Nebo, and what is today called Mount Magazine was labeled "Castete Mt" on Nuttall's maps. [6]
Mount Magazine is located due north of Blue Mountain Lake in Logan County, Arkansas, approximately 45 mi (72 km) east of the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. The most scenic route to the top is a 10 mi (16 km) drive along Highway 309 (also known as the Mount Magazine Scenic Byway) from Havana.
Physiographically, Mount Magazine is part of the Frontal Ouachita Mountains, and is part of the Arkansas River Valley ecoregion. [7] It lies within a southern extension of the Ozark National Forest close to the Ouachita National Forest.
The climate is very different from the typical climate of Arkansas state as temperatures remain 10 degrees cooler than normal temperatures in the valleys. The annual average temperature is 56 °F. The park gets 54 inches of rainfall every year, and due to the low clouds, there is fog and limited visibility all year for eight days each month. [8]
The summer temperature very rarely reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit on the mountaintop and the hottest average temperature during the summer in the park is 90 degrees Fahrenheit. [8]
The mountain has limited forest due to the harsh weather during the wintertime. Normal conditions like frost, sleet, hail, snow, and freezing rain can cause the limbs of trees to snap. Higher up on the mountain, frost flowers, ice crystals, hoarfrost, rime ice, and freezing fog can occur.
Climate data for Mount Magazine, 1948–1966 normals and extremes | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °F (°C) | 76 (24) | 71 (22) | 80 (27) | 89 (32) | 94 (34) | 100 (38) | 104 (40) | 105 (41) | 98 (37) | 92 (33) | 78 (26) | 76 (24) | 105 (41) |
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 44.8 (7.1) | 48.6 (9.2) | 54.1 (12.3) | 66.6 (19.2) | 74.1 (23.4) | 82.3 (27.9) | 85.3 (29.6) | 84.9 (29.4) | 78.9 (26.1) | 68.8 (20.4) | 55.2 (12.9) | 47.5 (8.6) | 65.9 (18.8) |
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 27.3 (−2.6) | 30.1 (−1.1) | 34.7 (1.5) | 46.7 (8.2) | 56.7 (13.7) | 63.9 (17.7) | 66.9 (19.4) | 66.4 (19.1) | 59.8 (15.4) | 50.5 (10.3) | 37.5 (3.1) | 30.8 (−0.7) | 47.6 (8.7) |
Record low °F (°C) | −9 (−23) | −7 (−22) | 2 (−17) | 21 (−6) | 28 (−2) | 43 (6) | 53 (12) | 51 (11) | 39 (4) | 21 (−6) | 0 (−18) | −5 (−21) | −9 (−23) |
Average precipitation inches (mm) | 3.94 (100) | 4.06 (103) | 5.38 (137) | 5.74 (146) | 6.24 (158) | 4.53 (115) | 6.25 (159) | 4.41 (112) | 3.85 (98) | 3.49 (89) | 3.47 (88) | 2.56 (65) | 53.92 (1,370) |
Average snowfall inches (cm) | 2.2 (5.6) | 2.5 (6.4) | 0.7 (1.8) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0.7 (1.8) | 0.7 (1.8) | 6.8 (17.4) |
Source: Western Regional Climate Center [9] |
As the South American plate collided with the North American plate during the late Paleozoic, a major foreland basin, the Arkoma Basin, developed north of the Ouachita Mountains. [10] Small grains of sediment that had filled the Arkoma Basin were compacted and cemented into sedimentary rock. [10] As the land rose above sea level, small streams developed that eventually merged into the Arkansas River. [11] After millions of years of erosion, synclines like Mount Magazine have become the most positive topographic features; this phenomenon is the result of the rapid weathering of shales once sandstones were breached on the flanks of surrounding anticlines. [12]
Mount Magazine is a broad mesa composed of Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks deposited in various shallow-water environments. [13] Like many mountains in the western Arkansas River Valley, Mount Magazine is capped by the Savanna Formation, a sequence of shale, siltstone, and sandstone; the upper portion of this sequence is missing throughout most of Arkansas. [13] The Savanna Formation is conformable with the underlying McAlester Formation, a sequence of shale, siltstone, sandstone, and several coal beds. [13] The McAlester Formation is conformable with the underlying Hartshorne Sandstone, a prominent ledge-former under favorable structural conditions. [13] The Hartshorne Sandstone is unconformable with the underlying Atoka Formation. This unit has the largest areal extent of any of the Paleozoic formations in Arkansas, extending as far north as the Boston Mountains, and is divided into upper, middle, and lower members. [13] [7]
Mount Magazine promotes environmental conservation through an Eco-friendly nature attraction that allows visitors to explore nature. [14] It also consists of 18 campsites for nature-lovers. [15] An annual butterfly festival is hosted each June in the Paris town square. [16]
The park is home to many species including the shagreen snail, black bear, white-tailed deer, rufous-crowned sparrows (rare), and 94 of the 134 butterfly species of Arkansas. The rarest butterfly species is the Diana Fritillary. [17]
Activities include the following: hiking, biking, bird watching, horseback riding, hang gliding, rappelling, rock climbing, sightseeing, and photography. [14] ATV riding is also allowed as there is a guide to the activity. [15]
The Boston Mountains is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Part of the Ozarks, the Boston Mountains are a deeply dissected plateau. The ecoregion is steeper than the adjacent Springfield Plateau to the north, and bordered on the south by the Arkansas Valley. The Oklahoma portion of the range is locally referred to as the Cookson Hills. There are several theories of how the mountains were named, though apparently none are related to the Massachusetts city.
The Ouachita Mountains, simply referred to as the Ouachitas, are a mountain range in western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thrust Belt, one of the important orogenic belts of North America. The Ouachitas continue in the subsurface to the northeast, where they make a poorly understood connection with the Appalachians and to the southwest, where they join with the Marathon uplift area of West Texas. Together with the Ozark Plateaus, the Ouachitas form the U.S. Interior Highlands. The highest natural point is Mount Magazine at 2,753 feet (839 m).
Hot Springs National Park is an American national park in central Garland County, Arkansas, adjacent to the city of Hot Springs, the county seat. Hot Springs Reservation was initially created by an act of the United States Congress on April 20, 1832, to be preserved for future recreation. Established before the concept of a national park existed, it was the first time that land had been set aside by the federal government to preserve its use as an area for recreation. The hot spring water has been popularly believed for centuries to possess medicinal properties, and was a subject of legend among several Native American tribes. Following federal protection in 1832, the city developed into a successful spa town.
Texas contains a wide variety of geologic settings. The state's stratigraphy has been largely influenced by marine transgressive-regressive cycles during the Phanerozoic, with a lesser but still significant contribution from late Cenozoic tectonic activity, as well as the remnants of a Paleozoic mountain range.
The San Juan Basin is a geologic structural basin located near the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. The basin covers 7,500 square miles and resides in northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and parts of Utah and Arizona. Specifically, the basin occupies space in the San Juan, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, and McKinley counties in New Mexico, and La Plata and Archuleta counties in Colorado. The basin extends roughly 100 miles (160 km) N-S and 90 miles (140 km) E-W.
The Ordovician Reedsville Formation is a mapped surficial bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee, that extends into the subsurface of Ohio. This rock is a slope-former adjacent to the prominent ridge-forming Bald Eagle sandstone unit in the Appalachian Mountains. It is often abbreviated Or on geologic maps.
The Clinton Group is a mapped unit of sedimentary rock found throughout eastern North America. The interval was first defined by the geologist Lardner Vanuxem, who derived the name from the village of Clinton in Oneida County, New York where several well exposed outcrops of these strata can be found. The Clinton Group and its lateral equivalents extend throughout much of the Appalachian Foreland Basin, a major structural and depositional province extending from New York to Alabama. The term has been employed in Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, though in many of these areas the same interval is referred to as the Rose Hill, Rockwood, or Red Mountain Formations. Historically the term "Clinton" has also been assigned to several lower Silurian stratigraphic units in Ohio and Kentucky which are now known to be significantly older than the Clinton Group as it was originally defined. Many parts of this succession are richly fossiliferous, making the Clinton Group an important record of marine life during the early Silurian. Several economically valuable rock-types are found within this interval, though it is perhaps best known as a significant source of iron ore
The Nikanassin Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Jurassic (Portlandian) to Early Cretaceous (Barremian) age. It is present along the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in western Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. Its name was first proposed by D.B. Dowling in 1909 (Coal Fields South of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountain, Alberta Page 140 paragraph 4 " to this it is proposed to give the name Nikanassin, from the Cree word meaning outer range" Also it is noted on the map by D.B. Dowling.(Geological Survey of Canada. Incorrect info follows: It was named by B.R. MacKay in 1929 for the Nikanassin Range of the front-central ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Mackay did not designate a type locality for the formation, although he described outcrops near the hamlet of Brûlé, north of the Yellowhead Highway outside of Jasper National Park.
The Cardium Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the fossilized heart-shaped cockle shells in the family Cardiidae present. It was first described along the Bow River banks by James Hector in 1895. It is present throughout western Alberta and in northeastern British Columbia, and it is a major source of petroleum and natural gas.
The Dunvegan Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Cenomanian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Alberta Group is a stratigraphical unit of Cenomanian to early Campanian age in the Lewis overthrust in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Fayetteville Shale is a geologic formation of Mississippian age composed of tight shale within the Arkoma Basin of Arkansas and Oklahoma. It is named for the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and requires hydraulic fracturing to release the natural gas contained within.
The Flatside Wilderness is a 9,507-acre protected area in the U.S. state of Arkansas. It is one of six wilderness areas in the Ouachita National Forest and also the easternmost. Outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy the area in a number of ways, including an 8.9-mile section of the Ouachita National Recreation Trail.
Named after Atoka County, Oklahoma, the Atoka Formation is a geologic formation in central and western Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, central and western Texas, and eastern New Mexico. It is the surface rock of the Boston Mountains and dominates exposures in the Frontal Ouachita Mountains of the Arkansas River Valley.
The Mount Whyte Formation is a stratigraphic unit that is present on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the southern Canadian Rockies and the adjacent southwestern Alberta plains. It was deposited during Middle Cambrian time and consists of shale interbedded with other siliciclastic rock types and limestones. It was named for Mount Whyte in Banff National Park by Charles Doolittle Walcott, the discoverer of the Burgess shale fossils, and it includes several genera of fossil trilobites.
Tesnus is a ghost town and unincorporated community in Brewster County, in the U.S. state of Texas.
The McAlester Formation is a Pennsylvanian geologic formation in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Early descriptions of this unit considered it to be part of the Coal Measures, part of the Upper or Western Coal Bearing Division, the Spadra Stage and part of the Sebastian Stage, and part of the Cavaniol Group. In 1899, J.A. Taff introduced the McAlester Formation name in his study of the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma. The name was introduced into Arkansas in 1907 as the McAlester Group, where it consisted of the formations known as the Spadra Shale, the Fort Smith Formation, and the Paris Shale. These formations was redefined and replaced in 1960, when the McAlester Shale replaced the Spadra Shale and the lower Fort Smith Formation. The McAlester Formation is informally recognized with three sub-units in Arkansas: the Lower and Upper Hartshorne coal beds, and the McAlester coal bed. Taff assigned the type locality near the town of McAlester in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, however he did not state whether the town is the origin of the name. Taff did not designate a stratotype and, as of 2017, a reference section for the McAlester Formation has not been designated.
The Savanna Sandstone or Savanna Formation is a Pennsylvanian geologic formation in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Early descriptions of this unit have considered it to be part of the Coal Measures, part of the Upper or Western Coal Bearing Division, part of the Sebastian Stage, and part of the Cavaniol Group. In 1899, J.A. Taff introduced the Savanna Formation name in his study of the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma. The name was introduced into Arkansas in 1907, although in 1950, the interval was renamed the Boggy Formation, while the name "Savanna Formation" replaced the underlying interval consisting of the upper Fort Smith Formation and the lower Paris Shale. The Savanna Formation is informally recognized with two named sub-units in Arkansas: the Charleston and Paris coal beds. Taff assigned the type area to the towns of McAlester and Savanna in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, however he did not state whether the town of Savanna is the origin of the name. Taff did not designate a stratotype, however, a reference section was designated in 1995 in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma.
The Arkansas Valley is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. It parallels the Arkansas River between the flat plains of western Oklahoma and the Arkansas Delta, dividing the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains with the broad valleys created by the river's floodplain, occasionally interrupted by low hills, scattered ridges, and mountains. In Arkansas, the region is often known as the Arkansas River Valley, especially when describing the history and culture of the region.
The Arkoma Basin is a peripheral foreland basin that extends from central west Arkansas to south eastern Oklahoma. The basin lies in between the Ozark Uplift and Oklahoma Platform to the north and Ouachita Mountains to the south and with an area of approximately 33,800 mi2. Along the southern edge of the basin, the Choctaw Fault is the boundary that separates the mountains from the basin itself. This basin is one of seven that lie along the front of the Ouachita and Appalachian mountain systems. This basin is Oklahoma's fourth largest in terms of natural gas production. Oil has been extracted locally, but not on a commercial scale. Coal was the first natural resource used commercially within the basin. Surface mapping of coal seams in the early part of the 20th century lead to the discovery of sub-surface features that indicated the presence of natural gas. Mansfield, Arkansas was the site of the first natural gas discovery in 1902.
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